I found myself at home alone for dinner on Saturday night, so I decided to put on a Mexican Fiesta for myself. I figured it was the last long weekend before heading back to school, so why not have some fun?

I started things off right with a summery blended beverage, which included:

2 cups fresh watermelon chunks

juice of 1 lime

2 oz aloe juice

4 mint leaves

splash of vodka

Fresh, minty, and a little tart.

It made a great beverage to sip on while I prepped the rest of my feast and snacked on some tortilla chips and mango peach salsa.

When we were at the lake with my family a few weekends back (when I baked up some of Mama Pea’s Almond Joy Cookie Bars) my aunt put out this delicious mango peach salsa that everyone raved about. She had bought it at Costco in the US, but my cousin said they actually have it at our local Costco as well. My mom picked some up the next time she was there.

Not only does it have a great sweet & spicy thing going on, it’s actually made with fresh ingredients, moderate salt, and no chemical preservatives. If you aren’t going to make homemade, this is definitely a good choice.

I needed that sustenance while I set out finely dicing copious amounts of red onion and jalapeno.

I needed these for three different recipes. The first (and most time consuming) being Kelsey’s Most Fun Mexican Rice.

Okay, so I didn’t stay entirely true to the recipe. First off, my ingredients were slightly different.

Since we don’t have Rotel tomatoes here in Canada, I went with some fire roasted tomatoes, and added the fresh jalapeno

I subbed in avocado oil for the safflower oil

I didn’t actually use rice

Looks like rice though, doesn’t it?

I assure you though, it is not. But you’ll just have to wait until I write about this deceptive little grain in another post.

The other major difference was that I didn’t make my rice in advance, therefore not chilling it in the fridge and then frying it. So it probably doesn’t quite qualify as “Most Fun”. But I would say it’s at least moderately fun ;)

Don’t worry, I didn’t just eat directly from the bowls. I made myself a somewhat deconstructed burrito bowl.

So much deliciousness!

Pretty enough it deserves another look.

It was all sorts of awesome. So many textures, flavours, spices, and colours going on, it kept your taste buds guessing as you combined different components with each bite. I loved the Mexican rice (even if it wasn’t rice, and even if I didn’t make it correctly), and will be making it again for sure. The homemade refried beans were excellent as I had remembered from class. And the guacamole had a nice prominent acidity to add a little brightness to the plate. My eyes must have been bigger than my stomach though, because I could not finish everything I plated for myself.

All in all, I would deem my Mexican Fiesta Feast a success – which is good, because I have a ton of leftovers to eat up!